


Cat's Eye

by Scytale



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 20:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17690261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scytale/pseuds/Scytale
Summary: Kasia wants to be a witch, and that means she needs a familiar.





	Cat's Eye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geckoholic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geckoholic/gifts).



The summoning circle was ready.

Butterflies danced in Kasia's stomach. She'd spent what felt like ages drawing the circle and inscribing the sigils along it upon her bedroom floor. 

She'd never tried a spell this large. But she couldn't think of her doubts now, not when she was so  _ close. _

One by one, Kasia lit the candles around the circle. Then, Kasia picked up the grimoire.

She had practiced the words so many times that now she read the spidery letters in the book without pause. The slightest hesitation, the slightest syllable spoken too late, could change the meaning of the spell so that it would misfire.

As she read, Kasia brought her will to bear on this world and the invisible one. The flames of the candles leapt wildly. Outside, the wind screamed. The invisible world, drawing close.

Black smoke spiraled up from the center of the circle. Then, the smoke settled into the form of a sitting gray cat with coppery eyes. It looked absurdly ordinary, not much different than  the strays that prowled the fish markets looking for scraps.

The cat looked at her solemnly. Its eyes were the red-gold color of copper pennies.

But all the old stories were full of humble animals that turned out to be spirits in disguise, so Kasia didn't let that bother her. Kasia grinned. The spell had worked! She'd sent an invitation into the invisible world, and a spirit had answered. It would teach her magic and lend her magic to add to her own, and...

_This_ _is the worst summoning circle I've ever seen._

The words took shape in her mind without her having to think them; their accent put her in mind of the old plays that the traveling players sometimes put on. She could feel another mind behind them, something old and strange. And also, offended.

Well, Kasia was offended too.

"What do you mean?" she asked, glaring at the cat. "It can't be that bad!"

_ For one thing, it isn't a circle,  _ it —  no, he —   __ said.

"It's not that bad," she protested.

But she had to admit circle did look a little squashed, like a turnip. It was  _ hard _ drawing a circle freehand.

The cat gave her a disdainful look.  _ Who taught you to cast, young witch? I've a mind to smack your teacher, whoever it is. _

"I taught myself," she said.

And whatever he thought of her casting, she was proud of that. She had deciphered the writing in the grimoire, laboriously sounding out the harder words by candlelight. She had learned to call fire by herself, even though the fire had run wild the first time and burned her hands. And now, she had summoned a familiar. Kasia had every right to be proud of herself, and she wasn't going to let him take it away from her.

_ Impossible,  _ the cat said.  _ These are the islands, aren't they? There's a witch in every village. _

"Not for a hundred years," Kasia said. Everyone knew that —  but then she supposed the cat wouldn't. He was a spirit, after all. No one would have summoned her after the magic had died out. "Magic has been outlawed for the last three hundred years. The witches burned."

The cat's ears flattened. For a moment, he did not answer.  _ All of them? _

"I suppose so," she said. Her eyes widened. "Did you know any of them?"

He didn't answer her. Instead, he rose, his form beginning to blur.

_ If there are no witches in the island any more, then I have no purpose here _ .

"Wait!" Kasia broke the circle and grabbed at him —  her hands clenched on smoke. "Stop, please. I need you to teach me magic.  Help me bring the magic back."

The cat's form was now more smoke than solid. The only thing that wasn't indistinct about his was his eyes, bright as fire.

And then he was smoke —  smoke that arced up and settled into the form of a cat. He touched a paw against the book.  _ This is the book you taught yourself from? _

In Kasia's haste to reach the cat, she had dropped the old grimoire —  it sat there, open to one of its yellowed pages scrawled with ancient writing.

"Yes," she said. She spoke quickly, as if by doing so she could keep the cat from disappearing again. "I found it in an old chest in my house. All the books of magic were supposed to be burned, but it's real magic. It works."

The cat watched her.  _ Does your village have a fish market? _

She blinked. "Of course."

He yawned, his fangs gleaming. Bring me  _ one fish every day. A big one. Then I will see if you are teachable. _

He padded over to her drawer and leapt on top. Then he turned around three times, settled down, and to all appearances, fell asleep.

* * *

Josef came home from the fishing that night, stinking of salt and fish. He looked oddly at the cat that sat on a chair. The cat, ignoring him, fastidiously licked his paws clean.

Josef looked at her. "Kasia, where did the cat come from?"

"I found him wandering around the market," Kasia said. There were always stray cats hanging around the market, so that wouldn't be suspicious, but just in case, she busied herself in the kitchen, ladling the fish stew into one bowl for each of them —  in her experience, seeming busy was a fine way to distract anyone from talking."He'll help us kill the rats."

Josef eyed the plate on the floor. "If you want him to kill rats, then why did you feed him?"

There were disadvantages to having a practical brother. "We had some fish left over after I made the stew," she said. She brought the bowls over to the table. "Besides, it wouldn't be fair for him to have to watch us eat without eating himself."

Josef's brow furrowed. He was giving her that puzzled look of his, like he knew that there was another piece of the story that he wasn't understanding. 

It was a look that he gave her more often now: a confused, big-brother look that said he didn't know quite what was happening with her and half-suspected it was his fault. He gave her that look when she didn't have the house cleaned or the garden tended or supper ready when he got back from the boat, when she'd burned her hands badly on fire spells and claimed it was the stove, and when she barely spoke to him on rest days because she was too busy reading in her rooms.

She could have told him about the magic. She had thought about it. But the lies had taken on a life of their own, and if he knew about the magic, he would tell her it was too dangerous and forbidden, and the air in the house would prickle with argument instead of confusion —  that was what she had told herself, anyway. 

"If —  "Josef spoke and she had to jolt herself to pay attention. " —  you want a pet to keep you company, Kasia, you don't have to come up with a reason." He sat down and held a hand out to the cat.  "Hello, cat."

The cat stopped washing his paw and regarded Josef haughtily.  Josef put down his hand with a rueful smile. "What's his name, Kasia?"

Kasia latched onto the change in subject. "We'll call him…" She eyed the cat and tried to think of a name that would be good for a cat.  His tail, which hung over the table, reminded her of a squirrel's tail. "Fl - "

The cat gave her a baleful glare.  _ Don't you dare _ .  _ My name is Sabeth. _

"Sabeth," she said. "I think that's a good name for a cat."

Josef gave her another one of his odd looks, but all he did was look back at the cat and say, "Hello, Sabeth."

* * *

Sabeth led her into the garden the next morning, just after dawn.

She sat down on the dirt, and he began to grill her. Why was fire used for some purification spells and water for others?  Kasia had never thought about it. What were the three principles of witchcraft? She didn't know that either. Her patience frayed —  she had come prepared to show him the spells she'd learned from the book, not to answer the questions she didn't know the answers to. She hadn't even realized that those questions mattered.

_ What colors were the sunrise been today? _ he asked at last.

At that last question, she burst out, "What does that have to do with magic?"

Sabeth gave a mental sigh.  _ It has everything to do with magic. Magic is the art of changing nature, and to do that, you must know what nature is and what nature will be.  _

"But I can already do magic," she said. She called fire into her hands and it hovered there, glowing green. She twisted the flame into new, spiraling shapes to show Sabeth that she could.

The cat tilted his head. And she felt him do something —  it was like a breeze blowing through her mind, coming from him. The fire dissolved into glowing sparks that floated into the air and faded. 

_ What did I just do?  _ Sabeth asked.

Kasia bit her lip. The spell had left her control somehow, slipping out of her hands like a fish with a net. It had been sudden, and she had felt him use magic, but…

"I don't know," she admitted. She scowled, hating those words and the failure they admitted.

_ Then _ , he asked.  _ Do you want to learn? _

That was never a question. "Yes, I do."

_ At least there's that. We'll start at the beginning.  _ But through the connection between their minds, she thought she could feel a slight sense of satisfaction.

* * *

Starting at the beginning, it turned out, meant a lot of observation. They walked  along the beach, and he would make her close her eyes and explain what she had seen and what it meant. Gradually, his criticisms became more infrequent, and he began talking more of magic. 

She learned the use of fire and water —  fire for rebirth, water for transformation —  and how to call the sea. Sometimes, when they waited by the table for Josef to come home from the fishing, he told her stories of the witches of the past: Kerwyn who had first brought the fire of magic, Corvina who had battled the darkness of Escalith, and Ame the scribe, to whom kings had sailed to for healing.

_ Your village was where her hut used to stand. Your book was hers first,  _ Sabeth said. 

"Is that why you decided to teach me?" she asked. "Because I have her book?"  The thought occurred to her then. "Did you know her?"

_ It was a long time ago,  _ he said.

But she had learned enough by now about observation and about Sabeth to understand the answer that laid behind the answer. 

Had he expected to find Ame there or one of the other witches he'd been a familiar instead of her? She thought, for the first time, of what it must have been like to be a spirit, only occasionally called into the living world, always living in pieces of time. What it would be like for centuries passing him by and coming back to find the world changed and his friends dead.

"I'm sorry," she said. She wasn't entirely sure what she was apologizing for -- his dead friends, maybe, or the fact that she had never really thought about his feelings until now. Both, maybe.

She reached a hand toward him and blinked in surprise when he butted her hand with his head.  _ Focus on your studies, Kasia.  _ His voice softened slightly.  _ You would not have found the book if you did not have the potential to become a good witch. _

Kasia frowned at him. "I'd rather learn to become a great one."

His amusement, clouded as it was,  rippled through her mind.  _ We will see. _

* * *

Summer turned to fall. And one day, Josef's boat didn't come back.

There had been a freak storm —  such things happened out in the water, and it had been a bad year for fishing, so the fishermen were always going out farther.

Kasia stood at the harbor, counting the bent, exhausted men of the fishing fleet as they returned one by one.

But not Josef.

"I'm sorry, Kasia," said grizzled, old Jan, who had sailed the seas longer than anyone and taught Josef and Kasia how to sail when they had been children. "His boat got separated in the wind. He's a good sailor."

She'd heard those words offered to others from the village before, but skill didn't matter, in the end. No matter how good a sailor you were, the sea could take away just as easily as it could give.

She stared at Jan, her fists clenched by her side. Her breath felt funny; it caught in a lump in her throat. "I know," she said. Then she turned and walked away stiffly, her face turned away so that no one could see her cry.

She went to the cliffs and looked over the black sea. A crescent moon hung in the sky like a smile, bright enough that it dimmed the stars around it. She and Josef had used to look for shapes in the stars when there were children.

She opened her soul, baring her magic to the sea and sky. Sending her magic forth, she searched and called, looking for a boat. There was nothing. Straining, she pushed her magic further.

She saw everything: the silver fish darting in the sea, dolphins leaping in the waves, shadowy abysses in the sea that her mind could not quite comprehend, ships sailing for home. She felt the flickering sensation of the minds of the sea creatures and heard the roaring songs of whales and the sonorous, ever-rushing tide. She could not hold all of it in her mind at once —  it was too bright, too wondrous, and strange, and through the rushing in her head, she heard herself cry out, a distant sound from another world.

And then the magic slipped through her grasp.

She had fallen to her knees without noticing. Sabeth sat beside her, his paws on her, his claws a warning prick against her skin _. Stop. You aren't strong enough to catch the sea, Kasia. _

"I don't want to catch the sea," she said. "I just want my brother back." What was the good of magic, if it couldn't bring her brother back? The brother, who she had lied to everyday since she'd found that magic.

"Help me," she said. She reached for Sabeth, and there was a film of tears over her eyes, so that he was as indistinct as smoke. She heard him purr, the way a mother cat might comfort a kitten, and a rough tongue licked at her hand.

_ This is how it's done, _ he said, and she felt the sea again with all its noises and its visions. But this time, it was distant and bearable. Sabeth was filtering the sensations for her, making sure that she wasn't overwhelmed.

This time, she could focus on the wrecked boat floating in the water, the young man clinging to it in the middle of the black sea.

Josef.

_ Now bring him closer,  _ Sabeth said.  _ Use your magic gently. You can't command the sea, Kasia, but you can ask. _

She obeyed, sending her power out. Sabeth's mental presence was there as well, helping to guide her and steady her magic. She saw the tide shifted, and the boat began to bring home.

It was morning by the time she opened her eyes. Standing unsteadily, she looked out over the cliffs.

"Did it work?" she asked. 

_ Of course, _ Sabeth said. But his voice, in her mind, was thin and thready.

She looked at him then and saw him curled beside her feet, making himself small. No, she realized, he was smaller. When she picked him up, he felt light, almost insubstantial. "Sabeth," she asked. "Are you all right?"

He yawned and leaned against her.  _ We spirits are more resilient than that. _

He nudged against her arm, and she hugged him, pressing her face into his fur. "Thank you," she whispered.  

He was purring, so softly that she wouldn't have heard it if they weren't touching. _ Go greet your brother, Kasia. _

* * *

She was there among the crowd by the time the wreck was spotted, and she ran to pull her brother to shore. Sabeth had vanished into the crowd.

"Kasia," Josef croaked. His hands grabbed for her like he was still in the sea, clammy and cold. "I'm sorry. I ruined the boat."

"Don't be stupid, Josef," Kasia snapped. "Let's get you home."

Her brother and her cat spent the next three days resting. She insisted on it. 

"Kasia," Josef said on the second day at supper."I saw you when I was on the sea. And I heard you calling to me, and that was when the sea moved."

Kasia stared at him. If she had the gift to work with magic, why not him, too? He wasn't well. She could lie to him as she'd done all this time, but she didn't have the heart for it any more.

"I saw you too," she said and this time, she told him everything.

 

* * *

 

Sabeth found her in the garden, tearing out clumps of weeds and tossing them aside. He looked better as he walked over to her and flopped down right in front of her. _ You should rest,  _ he said.

"I'm not tired," she said. She jerked another weed from the earth and tossed it aside.

Sabeth huffed. His voice softened.  _ You did a work of great magic. It's not a surprise you feel emptied out. _

She stared at him. That was what she'd been feeling since they'd returned, something she had been unable to name. There was a hollowness like hunger in her, something she'd been trying to fill with all of her motion.

_ Yes.  _ Sabeth must have seen something of her realization on her face.   _ It will get better. If you are patient and if you listen to your teacher.  And if you keep working great magic like that, you won't feel affected at all. _

"I'm holding you to that," Kasia said.

**Author's Note:**

> Geckoholic, thank you for your amazing letter! I'm sorry I didn't have the time to bring in as much hurt for the hurt/comfort as I wanted to -- hopefully this is still okay.
> 
> And a thank you to S for being a supportive friend, brainstormer, and last-minute beta.


End file.
